


The Intern

by sinkburrito



Series: Dragonfly [1]
Category: Blue Beetle (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, literally just me... having fun.... making an oc, mayhaps it is cringy but i Do Not Care, no i am NOT shipping her with anyone she's a child, self indulgent oc sidekick character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 12:23:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17203343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinkburrito/pseuds/sinkburrito
Summary: There's a lot of crying, but really, what other response do you have when you've just been hit by lightning?(wow look its my superhero oc totally original. just for fun!!)





	The Intern

 

She had all the qualifications and more. She was hired through the internship outreach program and the paperwork had gone through everyone up to Melody. That being said, the paperwork had  _ not _ gone through Ted, which is why he was surprised when he walked in the lab one day to find someone new. She was short enough to be mistaken for a child, which is exactly what he did.

 

“Hey kid,” he called, “The lab’s for grown ups only.” The bob of black hair looked up and turned around, pulling lab goggles up to her forehead. As soon as she showed her face, Ted suddenly had that sinking feeling that only someone who has just made a terrible mistake has. Wide brown eyes stared curiously up at him from a wide face with a wide nose. Ted realized what her goggles, lab coat, and name tag meant and winced. Unless someone had been letting their kid play dress up, that was an intern and not some employee’s kid.

 

“Oh, sorry,” the girl said sheepishly, “Ms. Case said I could work here. She couldn’t have been more than 5’5 and the lab coat hung just a little too long. “Should I- should I go somewhere else?” she asked, hooking a thumb over her shoulder.

 

“No, it’s- you said Melody let you in?” Ted answered, internally wincing again at his wording.

 

The girl brightened and nodded quickly. “Yeah! Oh, um, I’m the new intern. Chrissy.” she held out a hand after swiftly wiping it on her lab coat.

 

“Hi, Chrissy,” Ted said, taking her hand, “I’m Ted Kord.” He grinned sheepishly.

 

“Oh, wow, Mr. Kord,” Chrissy said, flustered. “I can leave if you’re busy? I just- I’ll find somewhere to work on this, Ms. Case said-“

 

“You don’t need to move anywhere!” Ted laughed, “I just came in to see Melody.”

 

“Oh, she’s not here right now,” Chrissy informed him.

 

“Obviously,” Ted muttered as he looked around the room. Melody was nowhere to be found, yet she had told him they had a lunch date today. With all the Blue Beetle business and running a company, he hadn’t had much time to spend with Melody, but he’d made sure that today-

 

“Sorry,” Chrissy said quietly.

 

“It’s not your fault,” Ted assured her. “I’ll find Melody on my own.” He turned to leave, then turned back. “How old did you say you were?” he asked.

 

“Oh, sixteen!” Chrissy said brightly. 

 

“Uh huh.” Ted said flatly, then left. Weren’t their interns supposed to be a little older?

  
  
  


The next time he saw the intern was in the lab again. A strange new material had been found smoldering in the grass in some farmer’s crops, so of course Kord Industries had bought it to see what it did. Jeremiah seemed wary of it; he wore a welding mask and jumped every time it crackled. The object was caved inwards along a curve and glowed a faint purple. It was made of overlapping layers of a cloudy white shell, like the carapace of some great insect. Swirls spiraled through the shell, similar to marble. 

 

She was at a distance behind him, taking notes on the observations murmured as he performed tests on it. Her eyes darted up and down; up to the scientist and down to her clipboard. 

 

“What d’ya make of it?” Ted asked, standing behind Jeremiah and looking over his shoulder. 

 

Jeremiah shook his head. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It won’t react with anything, but you can see that it obviously has some kind of charge.” The carapace crackled, giving off a brief flash of lightning as if to prove his point.

 

“Is it dangerous?” Ted asked. 

 

“We just don’t know,” Jeremiah sighed. “The electrical surges it’s been having seem to be harmless enough. All it’s done so far is give a little zap to anyone who gets close, but you can barely feel it. The thing is, we have no idea what it’s made of.”

 

“Um, excuse me?” the intern piped up, edging closer with her clipboard held tight against her chest. “If- if it’s not that dangerous, I could- I could run some tests. And stuff. Y’know.”

 

“I don’t think-” Jeremiah started, but Ted waved him off. 

  
“What’s the harm? Alright, uh, Chrissy, right? You can run some reactivity tests, fill in some data tables. Besides, you were about to go home anyways, right J?” Ted said, resting an elbow on his lead scientist’s shoulder. “I’ll stay a bit late, see that she won’t get into trouble. You get some rest.” he insisted, leaning back and making shooing motions.  When he left, Ted winked at the small girl.

 

“Go nuts, kid. I can tell you’re dying to do some experiments. I’ll be in my office if you need anything.” he said with a grin. Chrissy nodded fervently and rushed over to the strange shell. She hopped in the office chair and spun it towards the lab table, pulling out her pencil and writing messily on her clipboard. Ted chuckled and left the lab. He had a lot of work to do trying to solve a new case; this one was a string of murders with the cause of death being a sudden stoppage of blood movement. Gruesome work, but someone had to do it, and Ted was determined not to let anyone down. So far, the only thing they had in common was that they had all died within the Chicago city limits, which wasn’t much to go off of. Ted leaned back in his office chair and looked over the files again.

  
  


When he heard the thunder, he just assumed it was raining outside. But a closer glance at the windows in his office proved that, although dark, there was no rain streaking down the windows. No thunder followed that one instance. Then he smelled the smoke. 

 

“Chrissy?” Ted called, running into the lab. A giant, charred hole split the ceiling above the intern, who stood still with shock-sprayed hair in a halo around her face. A faint purple glow pulsed from her whole body and electric sparks danced across her limbs. 

 

“Uh,” Chrissy stuttered. Her liquid brown eyes were wide and terrified. “H-help.” 

 

“Uh- hold on,” Ted said. He ran to the supply closet and pulled out a roll of insulator material and wrapped it around her. She stayed still the whole time, shaking slightly as he ran in circles around her, trying to suppress the electricity. Soon enough, she was wrapped up like a Christmas tree ready to be put in storage. A Chrissy-mas tree. Ted laughed at his own joke after telling it to her. 

 

“There. I think that’ll do it!” Ted said with a triumphant grin. Chrissy smiled shakily at him. Then the material burst into flames and she began to cry. 

 

“Shit!” Ted yelled and ran to get the fire extinguisher. 

 

When the flames were out and Chrissy was covered in fire extinguisher foam, she sighed and sank to the ground, burying her face in her hands and sobbing.

 

“Hey, hey,” Ted said, setting aside the fire extinguisher. He hesitantly reached out to touch her shoulder. “Uh. It’s okay. There there?” He would be the first to admit that he wasn’t the best at comforting people. He had no idea what to say to her, or even where to begin. 

 

“Hey, at least you don’t crackle and pop anymore, right?” he asked, gently shoving her. It was true; the purple glow had subsided and the electricity was nowhere to be seen. “Uh-hey, look at this.” He scooped up a handful of foam and shaped his hair into a mohawk.  “Like shampoo!” She giggled, then sniffed.

 

She took a shuddering breath and wiped her eyes. 

 

“I-” she said, gasping for breath. “I didn’t- I didn’t  _ mean to _ -”

 

“You’re not in trouble,” Ted reassured her. 

 

“But it’s my fault,” Chrissy insisted and now tears streamed from her eyes once more. “I- I’m the one who touched it, and now- and now it’s gone and it’s my fault and I was on  _ fire _ -”

 

“Wait, it’s gone?” Ted asked.

 

Chrissy nodded. “She took it. The woman in the- in the- with the lightning eyes.” Chrissy frowned. “I can’t- describe it. But she told me that she was thankful to me for bringing it back to her and that- Oh.”

 

“Oh, as in uh-oh, or as in oh, that’s what it is?” Ted asked.

 

“Oh.” Chrissy said quietly. “As in I think that the lightning is permanent.”

 

“What are you talking about? It’s gone now- oh.” Ted said as Chrissy crackled again and zapped an empty beaker. She shrugged apologetically. 

 

“I don’t- I don’t know what I’m gonna do,” she admitted, wiping her eyes, “I don’t know how to deal with it, how to control it,” and here she emphasized her point by glowing an emphatic purple, “Like, what am I supposed to do? Phone a superhero?” She chuckled hysterically. The bright purple sparks bounced from her fingers as she ran them through her hair and she began to cry again. “Where the fuck do I find a superhero? The police station? The North Pole? On a gargoyle in Gotham City?”

 

“Uh,” Ted said. “Just calm down, it’s gonna be fine.” 

 

“How? How is it going to be fine? What am I going to  _ do _ ?” Chrissy cried, aggressively wiping her face. “Oh, god, okay. I’m- I’m gonna just- I’m gonna go to Gotham. I’m gonna ask Batman to adopt me. He does that a lot, right? Maybe I can be in line to be Robin. ‘Oh, look, there goes Robin! She’s a tiny Filipina girl that sparkles!’ Ugh, fat chance. Maybe Wonder Woman can take me to that island.”

 

“Stop talking!” Ted exclaimed, grabbing her by the arms. Chrissy stopped talking and just stared up at him with wide eyes like a puppy at the pet store. “You’re gonna be just fine and I’m gonna make sure of that myself. Come on.” He released one arm and used the other to drag her into his office, muttering to himself as he opened the passage to the Blue Beetle’s base of operations. 

 

“Oh my god, he’s gonna kill me,” Chrissy whispered. “I mean, that would solve my problems, but still.” Ted rolled his eyes. 

 

“I think this is, possibly the weirdest way I’ve ever had to tell someone I’m a superhero, but-- here it is. Hello Chrissy, I’m the Blue Beetle, nice to meet you.” he announced, turning on the lights. Chrissy’s sniffling had stopped and her eyes lit up at the sight of the Bug.

 

“Wow…” she breathed, then sprinted over to the Bug to examine it. “How do you get in?” she asked, clinging to one of the legs.

 

“I don’t-” Ted sighed, “You’re not even going to be all ‘Wow, Mr. Superhero! My prayers are answered!’”

 

“Oh, I found it!” Chrissy exclaimed as the bottom of the Bug opened up and a rope fell down. She clambered up into the craft, then slid down. “Oh, sorry. Yes, this is super cool! You can teach me to be a superhero and do cool things! I can teach you how to use modern slang and not sound like a youth pastor! We’re gonna have so much fun!”

 

“What happened to the crying mess from not even two minutes ago?” Ted inquired, folding his arms across his chest. “Also, I don’t sound… like what? Like a youth pastor? What does that even mean?”

 

“I got all my crying out,” Chrissy informed him. “You know, it’s good to cry sometimes. Gets all the emotions out in a safe and healthy way. So, I’m good now. Um, I said you sound like that because last week at the intern orientation you said, ‘It’s going to be lit, fams!’ Anyways, can I have a costume?”

 

“What- No, you cannot have a costume. You’re a kid! I’m not gonna let you run around on the streets with me, no way.” Ted said, exasperated. “I’ll- I’ll give you training or something, but no more. You hear that? No superheroing until you’re eighteen.”

 

“Robin is younger than me.” Chrissy pointed out.

 

“Batman is a psychopath.” Ted replied. “Which is why I don’t think you should be a superhero anyways, but you should at least learn to use your powers.”   
  
“I’m going to be a superhero next month,” Chrissy vowed. “But thanks for worrying.”

 

“Absolutely not. If you want to be a  _ real _ superhero so bad, then why don’t you go to Batman?” Ted said.

 

Chrissy shrugged. “None of his sidekicks seem to like him.”

“That’s fair. What about Wonder Woman?”   
  
“I’d be lonely, on that island out there away from everyone else. I’d want to see my friends.”   
  
“What about Superman?”   
  


“No. I don’t think he’d understand being human first.”

 

“Are you sure you wanna be stuck with me?” Ted asked jokingly, but he didn’t look at her.

 

Chrissy seemed to think about this for a moment, tapping her chin in a caricature of contemplation. “Yeah. You seem nice enough,” she decided. “Besides, I like your jokes.”

 

Ted grinned at her. “I think that’s fair enough. Want the tour?”

 

Chrissy nodded and she followed him around as he pointed out everything around them. He talked about the scarab, but glossed over Dan. He didn’t think he was ready to tell her about that yet. She seemed particularly interested in the gadgets and immediately fell in love with the Bug. She was quite disappointed when Ted informed her that no, she was  _ not _ allowed to drive it, not now, not ever. 

 

She stuck her tongue out at him. 

 

“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?” 

 

Chrissy nodded. “Hey, wait, does all this mean I don’t have to do intern things anymore and you’ll just take me down to your lair for super secret superhero practice?”

 

“Hey, this internship is a valuable education opportunity,” Ted argued halfheartedly. 

 

“Can we get ice cream?”

 

“It’s-” he checked his watch, “3am. I highly doubt that.”

 

4am found them with two tubs of ice cream reading files for the murder case. Chrissy proved to be… not the best detective, but she made an effort. Minutiae and clues were not her forte. 

 

“Okay, okay. One more time. What do they have in common?” Ted asked aloud, mostly to himself.

 

“They all seem like the kinda guy to hit you up on Tinder then call you a bitch if you don’t reply in an hour,” Chrissy commented. 

 

“What- Sometimes you say things and I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.” 

 

She shrugged. “That’s just their vibe. Hey, maybe they’re all on the same Reddit or something. Check?”

 

“Yeah, go ahead.”

 

“Um. I don’t know how to do that.” she said quietly.

 

“Aren’t you some little genius or something? You’re sixteen and you have a college grade internship.”

 

“Yeah, I know biology and chemistry and I dabble in physics, but my computer knowledge extends to knowing how to pirate movies,” Chrissy pointed out.

 

“Okay, first lesson in superheroing, brought to you by the Blue Beetle,” Ted said, “Is learning to find out people’s personal business using the Internet. Also, do you know a good website where I can watch those Justice League cartoons without getting a popup ad every two seconds?”

 

“Oh, that sounds fun! Wait, aren’t you a millionaire?”

 

“Yes, Chrissy, I am a millionaire and I pirate movies. We exist.” 

 

“Uh, okay.”

 

“Alright, so first, we are going to stalk his Facebook…” 

 

At 7am, the ice cream tubs were empty and Chrissy had thrown up twice. They were in Ted’s office now because it was warmer and Chrissy liked to watch the sun rise through the windows. However, the four murdered men had indeed followed the same Reddit: r/incels. Chrissy had laughed until she cried and then told Ted not to worry about what it was. 

 

“Okay, so all we have to do now is to find other people in Chicago who follow r/incels and keep an eye on them.” Ted said after she finished laughing, choosing not to ask.

 

“Sure. Yes. Let’s do that. Uh, can we do it tomorrow, though, because I have to go to school,” Chrissy said, eye on the clock.

 

“Wait. Have I kept you here all night? On a school night? Wait, what about your parents? Will they be worried?” Ted asked in a barrage of questions, immediately regretting his decision to mentor her. “Batman wouldn’t have done this. You should have picked someone else.”

 

“Woah, hold on! You agreed to teach me, no take backs. To answer your questions, I’ll be fine and I’ll just have a cup of coffee or five. My parents aren’t living together, so I can tell them I was at the other parent’s house. I… they won’t be worried. I still have my backpack here from yesterday, so I’m fine.” Chrissy answered. 

 

“I’m- I’m sorry, Chrissy. Do you need a ride?” Ted sighed, rubbing his forehead. 

 

“No. I can walk from here.”

 

“Here, take this. While you were looking over the case files, I made you a sweater of the best insulating material I could find so you won’t zap something at school. It’s not ideal, but it should work until you can control your powers better.” Ted said as she began to leave, holding out a bulky beige sweater in front of her. Her eyes widened and she took it carefully in hand, rubbing the material between her fingers. 

 

“Thank you,” Chrissy said quietly, slipping it on over her shirt. She made an odd expression with her mouth, pressing her lips together and pulling her cheeks back in a flat lipped smile while her eyebrows furrowed. She bobbed her head back and forth as if deliberating, then hugged Ted quickly around the waist before pulling back and waving goodbye as she exited the office. “Bye!”

 

“Bye,” Ted called back, slumping in his office chair once she had left. “What am I doing?” He asked the empty ice cream tubs, smiling slightly when he realized that Chrissy’s was Superman flavored. He hid the tubs beneath his desk as Melody walked in, ready to start the day with another passive aggressive not-argument. He could still taste ice cream though, and he was in a good mood all day. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> yee this is probably gonna be a series if im not lazy and booster will show up as well 
> 
> thanks to emily for proofreading and to alexa for inspiring me to make my own superhero oc


End file.
